September 20th news, Tencent Technology learned today that the much-anticipated Tencent e-commerce super platform has taken new steps. This platform is named "QQ Online Shopping", and its domain name is not taotao.com as previously speculated within the industry.
Due to the reasons of the beta testing phase, Tencent chose the second-level domain buy.qq.com. QQ Online Shopping's independent domain will be launched next year. There are reports that the initial six strategic partners include YiXun, HaoLeMai, and珂Lan Diamonds which Tencent has invested in.
QQ Online Shopping targets independent B2C
It is understood that QQ Online Shopping is an e-commerce platform independent from QQ Mall and Paipai, respectively targeting independent B2C, mall-type B-class merchants, and C-class sellers. Compared with malls and C2C, QQ Online Shopping leans more towards a B2C experience (i.e., product-first rather than store-first, and logistics and after-sales service are all up to B2C standards, with a more elegant and fresh design. The target customer base is middle-to-high-income white-collar workers who value product quality and service quality).
QQ Online Shopping currently adopts a category-franchise operation method. In categories such as 3C, sports shoes and bags, cosmetics, clothing, daily necessities, and jewelry, it exclusively collaborates with one core B2C in each category, allowing one B2C to independently operate a certain category. This can avoid the situation where merchants are of mixed quality, ensuring a consistently high-standard service experience. On QQ Online Shopping, B2C companies can fully retain their own corporate logos, and images can have watermarks with their main website URLs.
In addition, Tencent is a major traffic entry point, and Tencent plans to integrate resources such as QQ, QQ email, Tencent Weibo, etc., for marketing purposes. Each supplier can obtain all the traffic for the contracted category. In the reality of high marketing costs and increasingly lower conversion rates, this ensures they can acquire a large number of orders at a low cost.
The access standards for QQ Online Shopping will pay significant attention to service experience and product quality, among other user reviews. Tencent chooses partners not only based on basic requirements like genuine product assurance and price advantages but also considers various dimensions such as product richness, inventory levels, warehouse locations, delivery capabilities, delivery times, payment methods, and after-sales service.
Relevant insiders revealed, "For example, Tencent requires all merchants to ship within 10 hours of receiving an order. Such a requirement is something most small and medium-sized sellers cannot achieve, only B2C companies have this capability." When Tencent's e-commerce platform was launched, instead of nationwide mass promotion, it chose a pilot public test in Guangdong province, further conveying its differentiated competitive strategy of penetrating the service experience in developed online shopping regions.
Industry insiders predict that these six strategic partners will definitely include YiXun, HaoLeMai, and珂Lan Diamonds, which Tencent has invested in. Previously, HaoLeMai CEO Li Shubin confirmed during an interview that HaoLeMai would exclusively operate shoe products on Tencent's super e-commerce platform and suggested that if independent shoe brands wanted to enter Tencent's e-commerce platform, "they should cooperate with HaoLeMai."
YiXun had already started integrating with Tencent's e-commerce team more than a year ago. According to publicly available data, since Tencent invested in YiXun over a year ago, YiXun's order volume has directly increased tenfold. This has inevitably drawn great attention from the industry regarding which other companies will collaborate with Tencent next.
In response, Tencent stated that due to the platform still being in the system对接and debugging phase, it is temporarily inconvenient to disclose details. However, Tencent also pointed out that domestic mainstream large-scale B2Cs have shown strong interest in Tencent's super e-commerce platform. Tencent will prioritize selecting partners in key categories such as clothing, cosmetics, and daily necessities based on users' primary shopping needs. There are reports that B2C platforms such as Dangdang, Vancl, and Yihao Store might all be within Tencent's strategic cooperation scope.
Strategic partners actively prepare to connect with QQ Online Shopping
It is understood that with the tight launch of Tencent's super e-commerce platform, major B2C enterprises have also begun intensive preparations. YiXun has established a complete warehousing, logistics, and after-sales service system facing the South China market in the South China region, building a 20,000 square meter storage space in Shenzhen. Meanwhile, cooperating with a fully informatized self-built logistics system, it shortens the online shopping logistics time to within half a day, meaning goods ordered in the morning can be received in the afternoon. Currently, only YiXun can provide this highly efficient delivery service throughout Shenzhen.
This collaboration with QQ Online Shopping mainly involves the 3C category, including specific major categories such as: mobile phones/photography/digital, computers/accessories/networks, large home appliances/lifestyle appliances, office/equipment/consumables, cars/maintenance/decoration. It is expected to reach 25,000 SKUs by the end of September.
As one of the first to move in, KeLan Diamonds has made comprehensive and sufficient preparations for the launch of Tencent's new platform. Recently, the stock level on the cooperative platform has increased by 80%, while fashion jewelry and fast-moving consumer goods categories have been reduced. A dedicated warehousing and logistics system has been established to ensure adequate inventory and improve speed in logistics and distribution. At the same time, a specialized operations team for Tencent's super e-commerce platform has been set up to specifically handle the maintenance work of the e-commerce platform.
HaoLeMai is preparing to build its own logistics system to support the launch of QQ Online Shopping. It is expected to complete the first round of logistics construction in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu by the end of the year. Additionally, they are vigorously recruiting relevant e-commerce talents recently to make full talent reserves for future development and cooperation.
It is understood that besides QQ Online Shopping's unified shopping entrance, Tencent provides comprehensive support to its partners, including: in the marketing phase, Tencent will provide user-shared services to its partners, allowing Tencent users to log into partner websites with just one click using their QQ numbers. Meanwhile, Tencent integrates its massive products and community platforms such as QQ, QQ Mail, QQ Zone, Tencent Weibo, Tencent Friends, etc., providing partners with a wide range of marketing channels including brand display, shopping sharing, SNS stores, Weibo stores, etc., to attract new user attention.
In the future, Tencent will leverage its advantages in social networks and mobile internet to continuously drive innovation in business models in the social e-commerce and mobile e-commerce sectors. In the operational phase, Tencent will provide comprehensive technical support to its partners, including research and development, architecture, and operations. Through API openness, Tencent empowers its partners with secondary development, service development, search, and other core e-commerce development capabilities based on the Tencent platform.
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